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existentialhell's Reviews (77)
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I will never forget this. Love is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The sex is good and the first half has some fun humor, but the book's twice as long as it needs to be because everything is told rather than shown. And I mean *everything*. It's excruciating listening to Alli and Josh try to outwit readers looking for plotholes and problematic behavior in their stalker romance.
On that note: for all its marketing as a depraved and unrepentant spiral, the story really wants to make sure you know we're morally allowed to like our two MCs. It basically abandons the "dark" pretense by the halfway point,and while the subject matter it deals in is still bleak, the lack of any proven stakes leaves the whole plot feeling hollow. Which is a shame, because the conceit is so fun! I wish the author had leaned more rather than constantly reminding us that our masked stalker fantasy MMC is really a nice dude and all the rest.
Also, it's kink written from a bafflingly vanilla perspective. And not Alli's POV, which is consistent enough with her characterization. But the entire novel constantly tells us how depraved and fucked up and taboo our MCs' desires are — I guess in an attempt to titillate readers with no kink experience — and it gets old real fast. Bizarrely puritanical sensibilities in our dubcon BDSM romance.
My rec: Find a supercut of the audiobook's best and funniest moments. The VAs do a phenomenal job and the bits of humor make me hope that the author finds a great editor to help them tighten up their voice in future projects.
On that note: for all its marketing as a depraved and unrepentant spiral, the story really wants to make sure you know we're morally allowed to like our two MCs. It basically abandons the "dark" pretense by the halfway point,and while the subject matter it deals in is still bleak, the lack of any proven stakes leaves the whole plot feeling hollow. Which is a shame, because the conceit is so fun! I wish the author had leaned more rather than constantly reminding us that our masked stalker fantasy MMC is really a nice dude and all the rest.
Also, it's kink written from a bafflingly vanilla perspective. And not Alli's POV, which is consistent enough with her characterization. But the entire novel constantly tells us how depraved and fucked up and taboo our MCs' desires are — I guess in an attempt to titillate readers with no kink experience — and it gets old real fast. Bizarrely puritanical sensibilities in our dubcon BDSM romance.
My rec: Find a supercut of the audiobook's best and funniest moments. The VAs do a phenomenal job and the bits of humor make me hope that the author finds a great editor to help them tighten up their voice in future projects.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment
Too much emotional explanation (over demonstration), not enough narrative weight.
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Unimpressed by the writing, actively frustrated by how Nayler chooses to talk about/characterize Ha and Evrim. I don't trust him to deliver a naunced narrative — or even a compelling one — centered on consciousness when these early pages are already bloated with Philosophy 101 lecture questions presented as casually profound internal monologues. He presents Evrim as outside the gender binary by making Ha have an sociolinguistic crisis the first time they say Hello. It's excruciating. It's self-flagellating. It's three pages long. It completely derails the reader's experience.
"Ha was irritated by her brain's gender provincialism..." is so inane.
"If only she let go, pulled away from that desire to slot Evrim like a child's peg into a slot-shaped hole in a board—to resolve them into a gender."
"Ha began referring to Evrim, in her mind, with the Turkish "O"—round as its form, holistic, inclusive. The gender problem disappeared..."
Over–exposition festers in any paragraph that so much as breathes in the direction of existentialism. What does it mean to be conscious? To be human? These might be helpful questions to ask yourself as you, for example, draft a sci-fi thriller around hyperintelligent cephalopods. They are terrible questions for your brilliant scientist POV character to ask herself, utterly unprompted, barely 40 pages into the book. The story swells and rots.
If you pick it up, I hope the offgassing doesn't kill you.
"Ha was irritated by her brain's gender provincialism..." is so inane.
"If only she let go, pulled away from that desire to slot Evrim like a child's peg into a slot-shaped hole in a board—to resolve them into a gender."
"Ha began referring to Evrim, in her mind, with the Turkish "O"—round as its form, holistic, inclusive. The gender problem disappeared..."
Over–exposition festers in any paragraph that so much as breathes in the direction of existentialism. What does it mean to be conscious? To be human? These might be helpful questions to ask yourself as you, for example, draft a sci-fi thriller around hyperintelligent cephalopods. They are terrible questions for your brilliant scientist POV character to ask herself, utterly unprompted, barely 40 pages into the book. The story swells and rots.
If you pick it up, I hope the offgassing doesn't kill you.
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
GAAHHHHBBBBJHHHGGDKDBJJ I am inconsolable
Might come back to it later, just not feeling it rn
I suspect other folks may find this book more enjoyable than me and I encourage you to read it yourself if it interests you. I just couldn't push on any further against some of the writing habits - animesque explanations of the character's every thought, exclamations of incredulity that undermine the characters' purported intelligence and hypercompetency. These things are much more suited to stylized visual storytelling. I'm fascinated by the story concept, and I hope the book ends with some clever finale rather than just giving al-Jahiz the Magneto treatment (ie he makes too many good points for a villain gotta make him genocidal) but I won't be sticking around to find out.
Also the "conflicts" written between Fatma and Siti or Fatma and Hadia are just irksome. Resolved too quickly and too easily, robbed of any character or narrative significance.
Also the "conflicts" written between Fatma and Siti or Fatma and Hadia are just irksome. Resolved too quickly and too easily, robbed of any character or narrative significance.
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Read it. I know that's not helpful, but read it. It hurts. It's magical.
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Murderbot Diaries are a fucking joy